Federico's gets the last laugh

Federico's gets the last laugh

Comedian Patrick Maliha feels the new comedy night at Federico's will further diversify the supper club's patrons, which already include twentysomething dinner-goers looking to do something "retro."Arlen Redekop
/ PNG

Comedian Patrick Maliha was certain the joke was on him the first time he was booked to do standup at a supper club.

First of all, did supper clubs still exist? And second, who was the audience — 97-year-old men and their wives?

Maliha’s agent promptly put him in his place — dress up, relax, it’ll be fine, he was reassured. Maliha wasn’t convinced.

Not until he stepped inside Federico’s Supper Club, at least.

“I was like what am I doing? This is so wrong for me. And then I got in there, I was like oh my God, you could film the Rat Pack movie in here and not change the decor. I was so impressed with the old-school feel and then I looked at the audience and was like, whaaaa? There’s more younger people than older people, what’s going on? I did the show and it went great,” says Maliha.

That was two years ago, a one-off experiment held in a venue worlds apart from the usual raucous

comedy club or boozy bar circuit that Maliha was used to.

But it was enough to get the folks at Federico’s thinking and for the first time this year, standup comedy has become a monthly fixture at the supper club on the Drive.

“In most comedy clubs it’s a different kind of environment so we thought, OK, let’s give them an experience because that’s what our whole thing is — an experience. We started in January and it was a hit,” says Brunella Gaudio, general manager of Federico’s.

Supper clubs in Vancouver saw their heydays back in the 1960s, but date back to at least the ’30s, when arguably the city’s most renowned supper club, the Cave, was born in 1937. From the ’40s to the ’70s, these smoke-filled establishments, including Isy’s and the Palomar, were full of dapper men and elegant women who would spend an entire evening dining, dancing and listening to big-names like Diana Ross and the Supremes, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Sonny and Cher.

It was this bygone romance that Federico Fuoco was after when he opened his namesake Italian restaurant in 1999, currently the only supper club in Vancouver that aims to recreate this classic form of entertainment.

“This used to be commonplace back in the day, but not anymore. So I thought why not create that and offer that to people so they have a venue they can go to because a lot of people go out for dinner and then they say, now what?” says Fuoco, who grew up in a musical family around supper clubs in Vancouver, including the Cave where his father once performed.

But in the year 2011, when the restaurant biz has been notoriously tough grappling with the much-hated HST and a turbulent economy, both Fuoco and Gaudio felt it was important to keep this flash-from-the-past establishment current.

And what better way to reach out to a new audience than by making them laugh?

It helps that the lineup of comedians have impressive resumes. Vancouver funnyman Phil Hanley, who’s been making waves in the U.S. after appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and more recently, the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, is headlining the next comedy night on May 13.

“It’s been very well received. When we did the second show, we had 100 tickets sold and the next day we already had people making reservations for the third show, which was a month later,” says Maliha, an agent with Turner Music and Events who’s also headlining on June 17.

While Federico’s generally draws a 30-and-up crowd, curiosity also brings a younger set in their early 20s who love the idea of going “retro” and doing something their grandparents might have once done.

The decor is a nod to nostalgia with plush velvet chairs and art deco-inspired light fixtures. But don’t expect upscale glamour; it’s a family-friendly place where everyone’s welcome, whether they come dressed up or not.

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